October 28, 2006

Say It Ain’t So Steve-O!

Looks like YouTube was DMCA’d by Viacom over clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Unfortunately for Colbert, he makes heavy use of his stuff being online, most recently the Green Screen Challenge, so it will be interesting to see if he reacts to Viacom’s recent move. Colbert is actually all over making his show about more than just watching TV: he has built a sense of community around his persona. For example, throughout August he campaigned for users to vote for him in a Hungarian bridge naming contest and he ended up winning. The clip is quite funny, with the Hungarian Ambassador to the US coming on the show to proclaim him the winner, but the clip has been pulled. While it may have the right to pull these clips off YouTube, to actually do so is so dumb that I fail to grasp how it makes any economic sense for Viacom, especially since it’s too late for it to try and get an equity stake in YouTube. The last thing Colbert needs is for his fans to turn on him, which is exactly what may happen thanks to Viacom.